ON ACQUIRED PSYCHICAL HABITS. 315 



duration, and can be less frequently procured by a voluntary effort ; 

 for the internal tempest becomes more violent, the torrents of discon- 

 nected ideas are so powerful as completely to arrest the attention, and 

 the mind is gradually withdrawn altogether from the contemplation of 

 external realities, being conscious only of its own internal workings. 

 There is always preserved, however, a much greater amount of " self- 

 consciousness " than exists in ordinary Dreaming ; the condition rather 

 corresponding with that in which the sleeper knows that he dreams, 

 and, if his dream be agreeable, makes an effort to prolong it, being 

 conscious of a fear lest he should by awaking cause the dissipation of 

 the pleasant illusion. 



It is another characteristic of the action of hashish that the suc- 

 cession of ideas has at first less of incoherence than in ordinary Dream- 

 ing, and the ideal events do not so far depart from possible realities ; 

 the disorder of the mind being at first manifested in errors of sense, 

 in false convictions, or in the predominance of one or more extravagant 

 ideas. These ideas and convictions are generally not altogether of an 

 imaginary character, but are rather suggested by external impressions, 

 these impressions being erroneously interpreted by the perceptive fac- 

 ulties, and giving origin, therefore, to fallacious notions of the objects 

 which excited them. It is in that more advanced stage of the " fantasia ' 

 which immediately precedes the complete withdrawal of the mind from 

 external things, and in which the self-consciousness and power of the 

 Will are weakened, that this perverted impressibility becomes most re- 

 markable, more especially as the general excitement of the Feelings 

 causes the erroneous notions to have a powerful effect in arousing them. 



"We become," says H. Moreau, "the sport of impressions of the most op- 

 posite kind ; the continuity of our ideas may be broken by the slightest cause. 

 We are turned, to use a common expression, by every wind. By a word or a 

 gesture our thoughts may be successively directed to a multitude of different 

 subjects with a rapidity and a lucidity which are truly marvellous. The mind 

 becomes possessed with a feeling of pride corresponding with the exaltation of 

 its faculties, of whose increase in energy and power it becomes conscious. It 

 will be entirely dependent on the circumstances in which we are placed, the 

 objects which strike our eyes, the words which fall on our ears, whether the 

 most lively sentiments of gayety or of sadness shall be produced, or passions of 

 the most opposite character shall be excited, sometimes with extraordinary vio- 

 lence ; for irritation shall rapidly pass into rage, dislike to hatred and desire of 

 vengeance, and the calmest affection to the most transporting passion. Fear 

 becomes terror, courage is developed into rashness, which nothing checks, and 

 which seems not to be conscious of danger, and the most unfounded doubt or 

 suspicion becomes a certainty. The Mind has a tendency to exaggerate every 

 thing ; and the slightest impulse carries it along. Those who make use of the 

 Hashish in the East, when they wish to give themselves up to the intoxication 

 of the fantasia, take care to withdraw themselves from every ..thing which 

 could give to their delirium a tendency to melancholy, or excite in them any 

 thing else than feelings of pleasurable enjoyment ; but they profit by all the 

 means which the dissolute manners of the East place at their disposal." 



